


When The Wolf & The Witch Switch

by magicsophicorn



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Bodyswap, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-05
Updated: 2015-10-05
Packaged: 2018-04-25 00:45:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4940200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicsophicorn/pseuds/magicsophicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina and Ruby find themselves stuck in each others bodies, and learn a lot more about each other in the process. Written for Red Queen Week Day 1 - Opposites</p>
            </blockquote>





	When The Wolf & The Witch Switch

Regina was used to feeling powerful, but this, this was something else entirely. It felt like there was something twice her size and four times as powerful trapped within her. She felt like a tightly wound coil, just waiting to spring loose. It took so much effort to reign herself in, to not break anything and everything she touched. Just one tiny squeeze and the glass in her hand would shatter. Regina didn't know how Ruby did it.

Thanks to some kind of spell or curse (she was still having trouble trying to figure out what exactly) she and Ruby had swapped bodies. Regina had been in Ruby's body for about three hours now, and she had already broken two mugs, one glass, and one plate. She was trying to be extra careful now though. At least Ruby didn't seem to be faring any better in her body though, that was something.

Regina heard Ruby yelp (in her own voice, something she didn't think she'd ever get used to, at least she hoped she never had to) and she stood from where she'd been bending over to look in a chest to find Ruby struggling to contain yet another fireball. Regina sighed.

"Magic is emotion, Miss Lucas, so close your eyes, count to ten and clear your mind."

They'd moved to Regina's vault about an hour ago after Ruby had almost burnt down the diner.

After a moment or two in which Regina began to wish she kept a fire extinguisher in her vault, Ruby finally managed to snuff out the fireball.

"Jeez, how do you do this Regina? How do you not burn everything to the ground every time you feel anything?"

Regina smirked.

"Years of practice, dear."

Ruby looked unconvinced.

"I very nearly burned down the castle several times when I was first learning, but Rumple wasn't exactly the most patient teacher, so I soon learned to control it."

Regina coughed in embarrassment. She wasn't used to being so open about her past, but with Ruby she often found she couldn't help herself.

"Well I think you're amazing, being able to have the control that you do Regina, it's incredible."

It helped that any time she opened up to her, Ruby responded with nothing but support.

"Yes, well, I could say the same thing about you. I'm impressed that you're able to hug anyone without crushing them to death. I had no idea you were so powerful…"

As she finished her sentence there was a low rumble, which emanated from the direction of her stomach and grew increasingly louder, until it could only be described as a growl.

Regina's hands flew to her stomach, her eyes wide with embarrassment.

"Ruby! When did you last eat?"

Ruby threw back her head and laughed.

"Actually, only a few hours ago, right before we switched bodies."

Regina stared at her incredulously.

"It feels like you haven't eaten in days! I feel so hungry I could eat a horse!"

Which, worryingly, actually did sound kind of tempting…

"The joy of being a werewolf, I'm afraid. Seriously though, you should go and eat something, preferably meat. I don't want to get a weak and malnourished body back…"

Regina wasn't entirely convinced that would actually happen, but then she really was very hungry. It would be easier to concentrate on finding a way to switch their bodies back if she wasn't distracted by hunger…

"I'll stay here," Ruby volunteered, "I know you don't want anyone to know about the switch until we know what or who caused it. Besides, you can be quick, I know you've been desperate to try out my super wolf speed…"

Ruby grinned cheekily and Regina felt a little bit like a naughty child who'd just been caught doing something they shouldn't. She hadn't said anything about it, but Ruby was right, she was incredibly curious to experience her heightened speed.

"Seriously, go feed me… you… whatever, that's confusing. I'll be fine here, just go."

That was all the convincing Regina needed.

"Alright, I'll be quick, and I'll bring something back for you."

\-------------------------------

As soon as she was out of the vault Regina took a deep breath and released the coiled up energy she could feel within her in a burst of speed.

It was incredible, moving this fast. Every step graceful and purposeful. It almost felt as though the world around her had slowed down as she moved normally through it, rather than her going any faster.

In no time at all she was standing in her own back garden. She didn't even feel out of breath despite having ran the entire way there from the vault. Regina had no idea why Ruby bothered to go jogging when she could run like this with little to no effort.

Regina fished the spare key out of its hiding place and let herself in. Henry was at the Charming's today, so she didn't need to worry about him accidentally seeing 'Ruby' in their kitchen unannounced

Regina began absentmindedly pulling various items of food from the fridge. Bacon. Yes, bacon was good. Ooh perhaps steak too. She had some of that in the freezer, she thought.

Just as she located the last piece of meat in the entire house, Regina suddenly heard a noise. She didn't work out what it was until it was too late. The front door. Someone had just come in through the front door. She couldn't normally hear that from the kitchen, another advantage of being in Ruby's werewolf body. 

Regina tensed, unsure of what to do. Who was it? Was it Henry? An intruder?

"Regina?" Emma's voice echoed round the house and Regina felt herself relax. She'd given Emma a key a few months ago for ease of dropping off and collecting Henry, under strict instructions that she was not to abuse the privilege. Regina had horrible visions of coming home one day to find Emma Swan lounging on her couch, eating all her food and just generally messing up her house with her presence. Thankfully Emma had yet to do anything of the sort.

Regina momentarily forgot her current situation and headed out on autopilot   
to meet Emma.

"Oh my god, Ruby! It worked!" Emma screeched the second she came into view, and Regina suddenly realised her mistake. She wasn't sure why Emma seemed so excited to see Ruby though, or what she thought had worked.

"You sly dog!" Emma said, grinning from ear to ear, "So you _finally_ found the balls to make your move on Regina! I'm so proud of you! And I want all the sordid details of your no doubt magical true love boning…. Also I expect to be credited for making it all possible in the wedding speech."

"Miss Swan!" Regina could help herself from saying. She was having a hard time wrapping her brain around the words coming out of Emma's mouth. It sounded like she was implying that Ruby had feelings for her, a concept which Regina had been resolutely refusing to hope for for quite some time now. She couldn't handle getting her heart broken again, and with the way she felt for Ruby, that was a very distinct possibility.

" _Regina?_ " Emma said slowly, her eyes widening in realisation. "Oh… Shit!"

Suddenly something clicked into place in Regina's brain.

"Wait a minute, what worked? Why did you think you were responsible for Miss Lucas being here? What did you do Miss Swan?"

Regina's tone was dangerously low (a voice in the back of her head pointed out how sexy that tone was in Ruby's voice, but she quickly pushed the thought aside).

Emma's eyes darted nervously around the room.

"I… Uh… I have to go…"

She turned and headed towards the door, but Regina was having none of it. In a flash she was in front of Emma, blocking her path.

"Miss Swan you will tell me right now if you are responsible for this current predicament, or so help me…"

"You'll punish me?" Emma finished with a very small, sheepish, grin. "Alright! Yes, I think it was me! I had no idea it would do this though…"

Regina simply glared at her until she continued.

"I was just trying to help! Ruby won't shut up about how much she likes you, and I know you feel the same, even though you'd never admit it…"

Regina wanted to interrupt, to deny it, but her brain just couldn't get past this one little piece of information that changed everything - Ruby had feelings for her.

"So I just thought I'd do a little magic to help you two get a little bit closer… Guess I misjudged just how close though, eh?"

Emma chuckled until she caught Regina's glare and tried to cover it with a cough.

"What magic did you do?"

Emma fished around in her pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper before handing it over to Regina.

"That's the spell that Gold gave me."

"Gold! You went to Gold for this?"

Regina was almost as taken aback as Emma by the growl that came out of her mouth.

"I didn't tell him who or what exactly it was for! I'm not stupid…"

"I beg to differ, Miss Swan. If you had paid any attention to the words you were reading it would have been abundantly clear what the result of this spell would be."

Emma rubbed the back of her neck with her hand.

"Well, now you know what the spell is I should probably go and let you, you know, fix this…"

She began to inch round Regina to the front door. Regina let her go, too focussed on racking her brain to think of how to undo the spell.

"Just remember if you kill me now, you won't be able to thank me later when you two are living happily ever after!" Emma called out over her shoulder as she left the house. Regina rolled her eyes. She needed to get back to Ruby. Although maybe she should have that steak first…

\-------------------------------

As she re-entered her vault, Regina felt nervous in a way she never had before. Now that she’d had time to think about the spell Emma had used to switch their bodies she realised that the only way to reverse it was to do something she had been far too afraid to do up until now – confess her feelings to Ruby. The spell had been worded so as to allow two people to learn the truths in each other’s hearts, so in theory telling Ruby about her feelings should complete that. Hopefully.

Ruby leapt to her feet as soon as Regina entered the room.

“Oh thank god you’re back, you’ve been gone for ages! I need to pee so bad but I didn’t know if you had a toilet down here and I didn’t want to go poking around in your things…”

Regina was touched by Ruby’s respect for her privacy. She pointed her in the direction of the bathroom, and three awkward minutes later she was faced once again with the daunting task of telling the truth.

“Well the good news is I think I’ve figured out how to reverse this spell,” Regina began, her hand resting on her stomach in a nervous gesture, “but the bad news is I think I will be forced to murder my son’s other mother, since apparently she is responsible for this.”

“Emma did this? That little… I’ll kill her myself!” Ruby muttered. “Wait did you see her like this? Did she think you were me? Did she, uh, say anything about… uh… stuff?”

The fact that Ruby was as nervous as Regina herself was made her feel a little bolder.

“I did indeed run into Miss Swan, and she gave me the spell she used to cause this chaos. It’s designed to allow two people to learn the truths hidden in each other’s hearts, and therefore I believe the way to reverse it is to confess a secret that we’ve been hiding from the other.”

Ruby laughed nervously.

“Well I’ve got plenty of secrets I guess, like I drink milk straight from the carton sometimes… Never from the diner though! Erm, what else…”

“Miss Lucas,” Regina interrupted, “I believe that you have been spared this particular indignity on account of Emma accidentally revealing your secret to me. So please allow me to make my confession so that we can get back to being ourselves.”

Regina paused, expecting Ruby to interrupt. When she didn’t Regina sighed, she couldn’t put this off any longer.

“Ruby, you are probably not aware, because I am not very good at showing it, but I have come to care for you very deeply. You are brave and brilliant and beautiful, and you treat me with a kindness that I’m not always sure that I deserve. I… have feelings for you, and until today I had assumed that you would not feel the same way about me. So perhaps when we are back in our own bodies you would like to go on a date with me?”

Regina sucked in a deep breath as the room started to swim. She felt weightless for a moment, and then just as quickly she felt like herself again. Blinking a few times she realised she was no longer looking at her own face, but instead she was on the other side of the room looking across at Ruby. She sighed in relief. It had worked. They were themselves again. She could once again feel the familiar hum of magic coursing through her veins, and she no longer felt she had to worry about breaking everything she touched.

“I would love to,” Ruby said, and it took Regina a moment to realise what she meant.

Regina smiled in happiness and relief, and Ruby stepped towards her, her own smile lighting up her face.

“How about tomorrow night?”

Regina felt herself blush, she felt like a school girl with a crush.

“I’ll have to check my diary, but I think I can squeeze you in.”

Ruby continued walking towards her until they were face to face.

“I look forward to it. But I don’t know if I can wait that long to kiss you, now that I know I won’t get a fireball in the face for suggesting it…”

Regina smirked.

“Who says you won’t?” She said, even as she leaned in towards Ruby.

Ruby met her lips in a soft and tentative kiss. Regina felt her heart and stomach flutter at the contact. She’d been longing for this for so long, and now it was finally real.

“Hmmm maybe we shouldn’t murder Emma after all, since she did help us get here…” Ruby murmured as she pulled away.

“Yes she did mention something about us thanking her for this later…” Regina chuckled. “However you are expressly forbidden to give her, how did she word it? Oh yes, _all the sordid details of your magical true love boning._ ”

Ruby’s jaw dropped comically.

“I take it back,” she said, “let’s kill her in her sleep.”


End file.
